Summer Fun

I thought I would share some random pictures I've taken over the summer. I don't know that these are in any particular order because they came off of different cameras.

For Lila's birthday, we gave her an art easel from IKEA that has a whiteboard on one side and a chalkboard on the other side. We put her little table next to it to create a little "art center". She loves it!

Wyatt also loves coloring at the little table, and he has a special attraction to markers! He spends most of his time pulling the cap off and then trying to get it back on. So I think he ends up with more marker on his hands than on his paper! Guess that's why we use washable markers :)

A picture I took of them one time when Lila was using the camera around the house.

A few months ago we drove down to visit Aunt Janina at work and eat lunch with her. We got sandwiches and ate them in the breakroom.

One time things were quiet so I decided to investigate. They were both in Wyatt's room, and Lila was reading books to Wyatt. This is what I heard:

Lila: "Wyatt, where is the clock?"

Wyatt: "Cookie!"

Lila: "Yes Wyatt, that is a cookie, but where is the clock?"

Wyatt: "Cookie!"

Lila: "No Wyatt! Stop saying cookie! Say clock!"

When I came into the room, something I said (I can't remember what now) struck Lila as funny and they both started giggling.

A picture Lila took of Wyatt in the car.

I took the kids with me to one of my doctor's appointments. We have to cross a skywalk to get to the office, so on the way back we stopped to watch the cars.

It was fascinating!

As a special treat, I let the kids take a bath in our garden tub about a week ago. Wyatt really liked the extra room to spread out!

After the bath, the kids like to stay snuggled in their hooded towels for a few minutes.

We've been using our backyard pool a little less frequently the past few weeks (due to the 100 degree heat!!), but one evening we filled it up - and even moved our toddler slide over into it. I thought Wyatt would love it, but he wasn't that interested. Lila thought it was great fun though!

George

Meet George.

George is Wyatt's must-have bedtime buddy. My Great Aunt & Uncle gave it to Wyatt when he was born, but it's only been in the past 6 months that he has formed an attachment to him. Lila loves stuffed animals, but she will have a different bedtime buddy every night; she doesn't care! Not Wyatt. When it is bedtime, Wyatt wants George and his water cup. When he wakes up, he gathers both things in his arms before you get him out of the crib. It is cute.

I usually try to make sure I put George in the crib whenever we have a babysitter, but a few weeks ago I forgot. So when she put Wyatt to bed and he started crying and yelling, "Dorge! Dorge!," she didn't know what he was talking about! Fortunately after a few minutes, Lila came out of her room and calmly stated, "he wants his monkey." Yay for big sisters! After he got George, he stopped crying, laid down and went to sleep. :)

Here's a picture I took of him sleeping with George. So sweet how he snuggles with him! I'm not sure what we will do if we ever lose that monkey!!

(Note: Lila took the top picture of Wyatt and George during one of her picture-taking sessions.)

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

About 3 months ago, our church had a Men's event where fathers and sons could go to a Frisco Roughriders baseball game. Ben took Wyatt. Included in the ticket price was all-you-can-eat concessions through the 6th inning. This included burgers, hotdogs, chips, popcorn and drink. I'm not sure how much Wyatt got out of the game (I'd put money on nothing, actually), but the food – that, he liked!

He also liked going up and down the stairs. And he pointed to the mascot several times and said "Elmo!" (I believe their mascot was a red bear... not entirely sure, but it wasn't Elmo.)

However, the BEST part of baseball for Wyatt was the POPCORN. (His first taste, too - thanks to one of the other guys who attended from church.) Doesn't that smile say it all?

Here's a pic of Lila when we took her to her first baseball game - she was about the same age as Wyatt is now.

Then about 2 months ago, TI sponsored a Roughriders night, so we went to another game as a family. We only stayed for 4 or 5 innings, but the kids had fun.

Wyatt: "Hand over the popcorn and nobody gets hurt."

Wyatt also thought it was fun to put his cup in and out of the cupholder.

Lila's 4th Birthday

This year for Lila's birthday, we celebrated in Wichita with family. I asked Lila what she wanted for her cake. She told me, very specifically, "I want a blue ladybug with purple spots." YES! No character shaped pans! Woo-hoo! Ok, so since we were not at home and I didn't want to lug all my cake supplies with me... I used icing from a can. Gasp! But I thought, it's a simple round cake. I can tint the white icing with some blue coloring, and I purchased a small tube of purple icing for the spots. Easy enough. I also used purple pipe-cleaners for the antenna.

It turned out pretty cute, I thought. Did I mention I decorated the cake the night before we were going to eat it? 'Cuz that's key to this story. Yep, after dinner while the kids were playing nicely, I decorated the cake. Now, some of you already know that canned icing is not as stiff as homemade icing but again, I wasn't trying to do anything fancy with it. Well, I don't know if it was the humidity in the air or what, but my cute cake the night before turned into...

THIS the next day.

Actually, I didn't even think to take a picture of what it looked like in the morning. This is actually what it looked like after I "repaired" it. Basically, the only thing left on top of the cake were the antenna. Everything else had slid down the sides. I was able to rescue the spots (sort-of) and we went ahead with our celebration.

Here Lila is blowing out her 4 candles.

She was very proud she did it all by herself!

And the cake still tasted good.

Wyatt thought it was finger-licking good!

He wasted no time at all devouring his piece of cake.

Then she got to open some presents. Here she is hugging a little puppy dog she got from Grandma and Grandpa Amey.

Before I go any further, let me tell you what I learned from this experience:

1. Always, ALWAYS, take a picture of your cake as soon as you finish decorating it (which I did). Lila also got to see it finished that night, so she at least knew what it was supposed to look like!

2. Canned icing is only for cakes that are still in a pan - where it can't slide off.

3. Cake will still taste good even if it's not so pretty.

4. If you are turning 4, as long as you get to open some presents, your birthday will not be ruined by a slightly deformed cake. (Phew!)

When we got back to Texas, we celebrated her birthday again (on the actual date) with Aunt Janina. We let Lila pick the restaurant she wanted to eat at - she chose Panera Bread. She loves their broccoli-cheddar soup! Here she is opening a present which came in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa Brandt.

Wyatt wanted to check out the gifts too. He loves to play with Lila's "dortcake" dolls!

Some new books to read. (And she's sporting a new outfit from Uncle Duey and Aunt Sarah). All in all, a good birthday!

Family Visit

During the second week of July, we made a trip to Wichita to visit family. Ben's sister and her family were in town, so we wanted to get up there while they were there. We stayed a few days and had such a good time! It is so fun to watch all the kids (who span 5 years) play together.

We started one evening by splashing in the pool in the backyard.

But then we moved on to baseball... or rather trying to hit tennis balls with a plastic bat. Lila was more interested in gathering all the balls.

After watching the process for awhile, Wyatt thought he had it figured out. "Who needs a pitcher? I'll just hold the ball up myself."

"Hmm... or maybe I'll hold the ball down."

We celebrated Lila's 4th birthday while we were there. As a special treat, we took all the girls to Build-a-Bear and let them create a special friend. They each started by picking out the animal they wanted.

The next step was to add the stuffing. Here Lila is pushing the pedal that makes the "fluff" go into her bunny.

After your animal is stuffed, you can give it an air bath. Kaelyn thought this was fun.

And then you can pick out an outfit! Lila named her bunny "Butterfly."

Another thing we did while we were there was visit a splash park. It was really neat because we had the park practically to ourselves. Lila loved it!

Wyatt wasn't so sure at first...

But it didn't take long before he was soaking wet and smiling big!

Of course, I think they all stopped at one point and took a drink (at least my two kids did)!

Some more backyard fun.

Listening to Grandma sing and play the piano.

David and Wyatt also played together some. Here they are working on the same puzzle. My sister-in-law is expecting a baby any day now, so the next time we get together, we will probably have 2 more kids who can play together - well, ok, so they won't be playing together for a little bit :) - but they will someday!

Swimming Lessons

We signed the kids up for swimming lessons at the natatorium for the first two weeks in June. Lila's class was Monday through Thursday morning, and Wyatt's was Tuesday/Thursday evenings.

Wyatt LOVED being in the water. In fact, he often says "get down?" when you are holding him in the water (uh, sorry buddy, but you aren't THAT good of a swimmer yet!).

The instructor had some watering cans to pour water on the kid's heads to get them used to getting water in their face. Of course, Wyatt had his face wet one minute after getting in! He just thought it was a great toy!

Swim... drink... it's all the same to him! (He's the same way in the bathtub; we are constantly saying "don't drink the water!")

Lila's class was for 3-5 year olds (no parents). She is a little more timid than Wyatt when it comes to getting her face wet. During her class, they primarily stayed in the shallow end where they could stand. They worked on kicking, "scooping" with their arms, blowing bubbles and floating on their backs. But the 2nd or 3rd day, they took them to the deeper end to get them used to going under.

The instructor held onto them the whole time, but still, it was a big accomplishment.

After she went under, she waited for the next child to have a turn.

Here she is supposed to be floating on her back. He kept trying to get her to put her arms out to her sides, but that one little arm kept wanting to hang on!

Floating on her tummy using the foam barbell and kicking her legs.

This was taken the last day. Wyatt did a pretty good job of being content while we watched Lila during her lesson, although he did say "water!" at least once every day. (Lila stayed home with me when Ben took Wyatt to his class.) I could tell that at the end of two weeks, Lila had definitely gotten more comfortable in the water. And, now whenever we pass the natatorium, she says, "Look, Mommy! My swimming class!"